PITCAIRN ISLANDERS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8264, 29 October 1912, Page 7

PITCAIRN ISLANDERS

IN NEED OF FRESIT INFUSION OF

FLOOD.

SYDNEY, October 28. Mr Carey, a Seventh Day Adventist missionary, has returned after being eovcral years on Pitcairn Island, where ho also acted as school teacher and physician. Ho states that there are 148 people on tho island, sovonty-ono males and soventy-sevcn females. They woro adherents of tho Church of England, but had now adopted tho Seventh Day tenets. They woro a happy, hospitable, sociable people, passionately fond of music. Tho communal system does not, as is often supposed, exist. Each person has a little plot, and they help ono another; but if a man loafs, ho suffers. Tho island is productive of fruit and other crops. There nr© largo numbers of goats, but only ono horse, and no oxen. There are no intoxicating liquors. Only two of tho inhabitants— American, who recently joined tho community—uso tobacco. Intermarriage is having a very injurious effect morally and physically. Every couple is more or loss related. Though they are greatly attached to the island, Mr Carey regards it ns imperative in their own interest that they should leave, and bo scattered over Australia or elsewhere.